Congressional Record: April 23, 2007 (House)
>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS REMEMBERS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 92nd
anniversary and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Yesterday, I
had the privilege to join the Armenian-American community of Worcester,
Massachusetts, including survivors of the Genocide and their families,
and many dignitaries of Central Massachusetts and the Commonwealth at
an event remembering the Armenian Genocide and the role it plays in
understanding contemporary events.
I am submitting today for the Record a copy of the remarks I made at
this special commemoration and an article that appeared in the
Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
Worcester Armenian Genocide Observance
I want to thank Father Terzian and the Armenian Church of
Our Savior for inviting me to participate in this remembrance–and I’m
very pleased to
be here with Lt. Governor Tim Murray and the Mayor of
Worcester, Konstantina Lukes. But I am especially honored to
be here with the Worcester Armenian-American community,
survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and their families.
There are several reasons why I look forward to this event
each year.
First and foremost, it gives me an opportunity to reconnect
with all of you, the Worcester Armenian-American community,
and to thank you for all your fine work and contributions to
our city.
Second, it is a moment when we recommit ourselves to
pressing the United States government to officially recognize
the Armenian Genocide.
And finally, it provides me each year with a moment to
reflect on our world; and on how I as an individual, we as a
community, and we as a Nation are responding to genocide and
crimes against humanity that, sadly and unbelievably, are
carried out nearly every day in some part of the world.
I believe that this year there is a very good chance that
the U.S. House of Representatives might actually pass H. Res.
106, the Armenian Genocide Resolution.
I can tell that this is a real possibility because for the
first time in years, I’m receiving materials arguing against
the resolution and against the official recognition of the
Armenian Genocide.
I believe adopting the Armenian Genocide Resolution is the
right thing to do:
As a matter of morality–and in the name of humanity–the
United States should recognize and condemn all genocides.
In the name of historic truth–and in honor of the historic
role so many American diplomatic personnel and humanitarian
and relief workers played in saving lives and condemning the
genocide as it was taking place–the U.S. especially should
recognize the Armenian Genocide.
And in the hope of preventing future genocides–we have to
recognize and honor the truth of the past. Denial of the
Armenian Genocide–just like denial of the Holocaust–makes
future genocides more likely, not less.
No Nation, not Turkey or any other country, should be
allowed to block the official recognition or commemoration or
the teaching of historic truth about the Armenian Genocide.
It’s ironic that the current Turkish government doesn’t
seem to realize that the more it denies the Armenian
Genocide, the more people begin to think that there really is
a connection between the Turks who carried out the Armenian
Genocide at the beginning of the 20th century and today’s
21st century government.
By denying the truth, Turkey undermines its own standing
throughout the world, blocks its own acceptance into the
European family, and increases regional tensions, especially
with neighboring Armenia. Turkey’s recognition of the
Genocide, its reconciliation with the past, would widely be
viewed as the act of a mature democracy, which the world
would rush to embrace and reward.
This is why America must also officially recognize the
Armenian Genocide.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in eastern Chad. And the
reality of genocide was right before my eyes.
There are over 250,000 refugees from Darfur, Sudan living
in camps inside Chad. Thanks to the many international and
humanitarian workers who have chosen to work and help these
survivors of the violence taking place every day in Darfur,
the camps are well-organized and efficient.
But I’d like to describe for you some of what I saw–and
what the Darfur refugees told me about what they had
witnessed.
I met with individuals and families who had been forced to
flee their villages in Darfur. Each had a story about loved
ones murdered, homes destroyed, people and family left
behind. Many didn’t know if some of their family or children
were even alive.
I talked with one woman who was harvesting onions at a
small agricultural site in Camp Gaga, a Darfur refugee camp a
couple of hours from the town of Abeche in eastern Chad. She
held a tiny baby in her arms as she worked on her onion
patch. She told me the Janjaweed attacked her village so
quickly and so ferociously that she couldn’t even bury her
husband who was struck down in the attack; she barely had
time to cover him with a sheet before she escaped with her
baby and children. She feels guilty and thinks about this all
the time. And she now hopes to stay alive and return,
someday, to her village.
I met with several other men and women, refugees from
Darfur, at the Goz Amer Camp near the town of Koukou, Chad.
This is a much larger and older camp. Many of the people have
been here for 3 years or so. These people were being
interviewed for the eyewitness testimony regarding crimes
against humanity that some day may be reviewed by the
International Criminal Court.
I went to eastern Chad to meet and talk with refugees from
Darfur because the Government of Sudan wouldn’t give me a
visa to enter their country.
But sometimes things happen for a reason, I believe.
Because not only did I learn about the reality of Darfur–I
personally discovered Chad.
The war in Darfur is bleeding into Chad, as well as other
neighboring countries.
While I was in Chad, two “towns”–Tiero and Marena, which
actually consist of about 31 small villages–were attacked by
“Janjaweed” militias operating inside Chad. According to
the Chadian survivors who I talked to–they described their
attackers as a combination of Sudanese Janjaweed and Chadian
Janjaweed allies. They were armed. They were on horseback.
The attacks started at about five in the morning, and came in
about 3 distinct waves of attack. They shot randomly, at
everything and everyone. Women, children, men, livestock,
fell to the earth dead or wounded. Homes were burned to the
ground. Abandoned crockery, left charred and broken.
These Chadians–now internally displaced inside their own
country–were gathering in the thousands near Koukou–some
estimates were 8,000-9,000. Many walked, some arrived on the
backs of burros, and many others were being trucked in by
humanitarian groups. U.N. agencies and NGOs were rushing to
provide them with emergency aid and to set up an emergency
operations site where people could receive food, water,
medical aid, and some form of shelter from the relentless
heat.
These new internally displaced now join the more than
140,000 Chadian IDPs.
I had the privilege to watch UNHCR, UNICEF, Doctors without
Borders (Medicins sans Frontierres), the ICRC, Italian Aid,
and the World Food Program work together to provide emergency
relief to these traumatized people.
So this year, as we meet to remember and commemorate the
92nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, I’m struggling to
find meaning in the words, “Never Again.”
I’m thankful to this community especially, which has worked
tirelessly for nearly a century, to keep alive the historic
memory of the Armenian Genocide and to speak out, condemn and
organize against the genocides–too many–that mark the past
nine decades of human history.
Thank you for your persistence. Thank you for your
commitment to take action. Thank you for your generosity and
compassion.
And thank you, once again, for including me in this special
program.
[From the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Apr. 23, 2007]
`Look at Darfur,’ Armenians Say
genocide remembrance resonates
(By Mike Elfland)
Worcester.–The region’s Armenian community yesterday
recognized a genocide that for many has a meaning with an
intensifying importance.
References to Darfur and the recent slaying of a journalist
who defied the Turkish government were made throughout
yesterday’s commemoration of what is known as the Armenian
genocide. On April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian
intellectuals, notably political leaders, were rounded up and
eventually killed by the Turkish government. More than 1.5
million Armenians would later die at the hands of the Ottoman
Turks, with thousands forcibly removed from Armenia to Syria,
where many died in the desert of thirst and hunger.
“We say, `Look at Darfur,’ ” said Richard O. Asadoorian,
the host speaker at the commemoration, referring to the
region in Sudan where black Africans are being massacred by
militias supported by the Arab-dominated government. Mr.
Asadoorian urged Armenians not to let time lessen the
importance of what happened 92 years ago.
Many survivors of the genocide eventually settled in the
Worcester area. A significant Armenian population remains,
and their pride in their ancestry was evident yesterday at
the Armenian Church of Our Saviour Cultural Center on Boynton
Street, where more than 200 gathered for a welcome history
lesson.
Nancy Hovhanesian, Thomas Tashjian and Ara G. Asadoorian
recounted stories told to them by grandparents and other
older relatives who survived the genocide. Mrs. Hovhanesian
talked of the great-grandparents she never knew and of how
her grandparents’ pain was absorbed by her mother.
Andrea Kisiel, a sophomore at South High Community School,
shared her views of the genocide in an award-winning essay.
Andrea took top honors for her take on “The Contemporary
Relevance of the Armenian Genocide,” the subject of an essay
contest sponsored by the Greater Worcester Armenian Genocide
Commemoration Committee.
Andrea, who is not of Armenian descent, wrote of a recent
trip to Washington, where she visited the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum and had an eye-opening experience
about history.
She wrote: “Then, I saw something that astounded me,
surprised me, wrenched my heart out of my chest. There, on
the wall commemorating all of the poor souls who had been
discriminated against, snatched away from familiarity, and
tortured ruthlessly until put to death, was inscribed my
family name. My name which was not from Jewish descent. My
name which was Polish and Catholic. My name that I had not
the slightest idea could possibly be connected with a mass
genocide. My very own name, there on the wall.”
Although she has no known relatives who died in the
Holocaust, said Andrea, the experience in Washington made her
realize the importance of the Armenian genocide to its
survivors.
Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-
Worcester, state Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, and
Mayor Konstantina B. Lukes were among the speakers at the
21/2-hour commemoration. Both connected the past deaths of
Armenians to the continuing genocide in the
Darfur region of Sudan. Mr. McGovern has long pushed for
increased U.S. involvement in saving thousands of refugees.
Mr. McGovern, who was greeted enthusiastically yesterday,
backs legislation that would require the U.S. government to
officially recognize the Armenian genocide. Some say the
reluctance is tied to deference to Turkey’s importance to
America’s interests abroad. Modern Turkey strongly rejects
the characterization of what happened as genocide.
Loud applause erupted after the congressman said he would
direct naysayers to a public library where they could learn
about the deaths of Armenians. “Facts are stubborn things,”
he said.
The main speaker was filmmaker Apo Torosyan, a native of
Istanbul, Turkey, who now lives in Peabody. His documentary,
“Voices,” finished this year, is based on interviews with
three survivors of the genocide. After he began making
documentaries, Mr. Torosyan was not allowed to return to
Turkey.
A 15-minute version of “Voices” was shown yesterday.
Mr. Torosyan spoke passionately about the Jan. 19 slaying
in Turkey of Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian
descent who was the editor of a Turkish-Armenian newspaper.
His enemies included nationalist Turks who resented his use
of the genocide label. He was killed outside his office in
Istanbul.
The commemoration was organized by members of the Armenian
Church of Our Saviour, Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church
and the Armenian Church of the Martyrs.